Camera

Surely one of the very best cameras in a phone

Camera UI of the Galaxy S8+

This year, Samsung isn’t increasing or decreasing the megapixels in the main camera of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Instead, it’s worked to enhance the image processing aspect of the image capturing process. To be honest, processing was already quite good on Samsung cameras, with probably the only exception being a noticeable oversharpening effect, which could make some pictures look a bit artificial. It’ll be interesting to see in what direction Samsung has taken image processing in the Galaxy S8+.

Hardware-wise, the single rear shooter is a 12 MP unit with aperture of F1.7, 1.4 μm pixel size, and focal length of 26 mm. The camera UI is very cool: the important shutter and video rec buttons are neatly placed on one side, while on the other are the HDR, Flash, and Settings. Speaking of settings, the camera is as versatile as ever, with a plethora of shooting modes and adjustments available. In addition to the standard pinch-to-zoom way of digital zooming, you can now also do so by sliding the shutter button up or down (if in landscape), which is a very natural feature that works surprisingly well.

The pictures coming from the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are fantastic. Detail levels are superb, dynamics are great, and colors are mostly realistic. Very rarely, there would be a slight white balance issue, but in more than 95% of the time, colors are spot on. Unfortunately, theres still some of the oversharpening going on, which may be especially annoying in certain situations – see the pictures with the waterfall for example.

Low-light photography is once again at the highest level imaginable. What separates the Galaxy S8+ / S8 from its rivals is the incredibly high level of detail preserved. Colors also remain remarkably lifelike, which is a quality not unique to the Galaxy S8+, but in combination with the impressive sharpness, it all makes for quite the exemplary night-time and low-light photographs.

Samsung Galaxy S8+ Sample Videos

Multimedia

The Gallery app

The Galaxy S8+ obviously has a humongous screen that’s perfect for video. On such a large canvass, it’s not too far fetched to even watch full-length movies, which may actually lend themselves quite well to the extra wide display. Most of the video watching will, however, be happening in the YouTube application, and aside from movie trailers, most other content there is in 16:9. This means that you either get black bars on the sides, or you lose some content up and down, if you use the crop-to-fill function. This situation is not a huge trouble, to be honest, but it’s an inconvenience. The GS8 and GS8+ are also capable of HDR video playback, which promises increased dynamics and more vivid colors, but sadly, such content is very hard to come by.

The loudspeaker of the new Galaxy is very powerful, but also quite substantial. Sure, it can’t deliver bass or anything close, but for a phone speaker, it sounds very well.

Samsung is making a big deal out of the included AKG earphones, and for the most part, they seem to deliver. Somewhat. Depending on whether you manage to get them to stay in your ears. They are of the in-ear type, which is never too comfortable to wear, and some of us had trouble making them stay in their place tightly, resulting in a dramatic loss of low frequencies. If you managed to push them deep enough in your ears, and make them stay there (which the author of this review was unable to do), then you’ll be able to enjoy high-quality sound.

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 7:39 PM 0

Posts: 82; Member since: Apr 03, 2017

Beats the s8 plus in what? I've seen real world comparisons of both speed tests and battery test and the only thing the iPhone is good at is launching and relaunching games. Why because games are much more optimize for iOS than Android. When it comes to launching regular apps there's no contest! S8 hands down. The screen on time on the s8 is also way more than what you'd get on the iPhone plus. I really don't know where PA gets its stats from but I'm pretty sure it's not real world scenerios.

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 11:15 AM 6

iPhone 7 plus is all the best all rounder phone. Other than big bazel iPhone 7/7plus beat this mediocre faceless looking phone easily. S8 plus has
mediocre battery life,
a weird aspect display,
a faceless design.
atrocious placement for a fingerprint scanner,
useless bixby and bixby button,
#hit loads of crapware and bloatware,
very slow and buggy update policy
camera is hardy a upgrade, last year pixel has better camera
High chance of explosion
This phone shouldn't get more than 6.5. PA is very generous to samsung phone as usual. Be glad that they gave them 9.

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 11:22 AM 2

Posts: 6794; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

Such a child! Why would one compare an iPhone to an Android phone? They are really an Apple to Orange comparison.
Can I buy a iOS device from Samsung, Sony or LG? There really only one choice for iOS device and that is Apple regardless.

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 10:33 AM 10

Posts: 186; Member since: Apr 14, 2017

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 2:41 PM 2

Posts: 17356; Member since: Jun 17, 2009

The iPhone 7 Plus does not beat the S8+ (or even the S7 Edge) in any battery test except PhoneArena's. And their test has been suspect for years.
The S8 won't be phone of the year only because the Note 8 will. The only reason the S7 Edge won last year (yes, it did win, like it is not) it's because the Note 7 was recalled.

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 7:53 PM 0

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 7:40 PM 0

Posts: 1208; Member since: Sep 01, 2015

What a beauty. And that with IP68, a superb screen, superb camera and great battery life. I would give it a 10/10 if it only had FM radio and either a fingerprint scanner under the glass or under the camera on the back like the G6.

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 10:15 AM 1

Posts: 928; Member since: Jul 27, 2015

posted on Apr 18, 2017, 10:24 AM 3

Posts: 440; Member since: Dec 07, 2016

is there a possibility of fixing your battery test procedures PA ?
cz every youtube video or review tells that s8+ and s7edge has better battery life than iphone 7 plus.
can't post liniks as PA blocks me for having less than 30 posts

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